By Nwagbo Obi
The Nigerian section, International Association of Theatre Critics (IATC), has aligned with Newness, Change and Continuity, the theme of 2017, Nigerian Universities Theatre Arts Festival (NUTAF) to train new young students’ critics with the aim to change the attitude of students in Nigerian theatre criticism.
With the hope that this change will yield a continuous and sustained practice of theatre criticism in Nigeria, President, IATC-Nigeria, Prof. Emmanuel Dandaura said one of his plans is that there should be sustained critical engagement in Nigeria. The critics that will be produced will constantly critique theatre performances in the theatres and theatre festivals.
The Africa’s sole representative on the International Executive Committee of the IATC explained that this became necessary as “there is now a better deal for African theatre globally. Our networking has attracted greater attention of theatre critics and curators across the globe. Several festival curators in Europe are becoming more interested in featuring African performances in their festivals in Europe.”
Prof Dandaura (Nigeria) was elected into the 2016-2018 executive committee alongside nine other candidates from across the globe were also re-elected as President and Secretary General, respectively.
Upon this he declared that he would use the platform of theatre criticism to link Africa’s finest theatre productions to festival directors and curators across the world. Prof Dandaura has just been elected this 2017 as Vice President IATC International.
In his bid to realize this, the President took the campaign for robust critical engagement in Nigeria to the students, where the Nigerian Universities Theatre Arts Students Association (NUTASA), umbrella body of all the students of theatre arts organized a theatre festival.
The Director, Publicity and Membership Services, IATC-Nigeria Nwagbo Patrick Obi of National Institute of Cultural Orientation (NICO) was the Resource Person and his paper is entitled How To Critique And What To Expect In A Theatre Performance In A Theatre Festival.
He started by giving the background of IATC stating that it has been in existence since 1956 as a non-profit, non-governmental organization. Its activities include conferences, symposia, and seminars for young and upcoming theatre critics.
Describing criticism as a focused opinion that fosters incisive thinking, talking and writing about performance and performers, he said in the theatre, criticism evaluates, describes, or analyzes a performance’s merits, demerits and effectiveness; hence it helps in the discernment of meaning of theatrical works and the significance of the theatrical experience.
He cited Ahmed Yerima to explain that there is a critic in the theatre and the one outside the theatre. The critics in the theatre are those who understand the rules of theatre, the magic of putting up a performance and the pains that go with play production from moment the idea occurs to the playwright to when all other officers of the theatre collaborate to put up the performance.
“The critic outside the theatre is the arts reporter who reports and writes news stories; mostly he does critical reviews of art works. This arts reporter is known as literary critic or art critic. He is also the theatre critic; who deals with performance, including text-in-performance; and there is the drama critic who deals with texts and pertinent history,” he pointed out.
Positing that there are two approaches: prescriptive and descriptive, which theatre critic uses to judge theatre productions, Obi clarifies How to Critique a theatre Performance through three basic questions the critic should ask (i) What is the performer is trying to do? (ii) How well has he or she done it? (iii)Was it worth doing?
The first question concedes the performers’ creative freedom to express ideas and events within the theatre. The second question sees critic as familiar with the performer and the forms and techniques of the performer’s time. The third question demands a sense of production values and a general knowledge of theatre.
He noted that with these three basic questions raised by German playwright and critic Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, what to except in a theatre Performance in a theatre festival includes the Basics; where the answers to the five W’s are answered.
These are Who (the playwright, directors, and actors; What (the title of the play); Where (the name of the school or theatre); When (when did you see it?); Why (the theme).
“Other are the Plot where issues like how well did the story work, was it interesting, entertaining arise; then the acting where the critic looks at performers and the characters in the play; here will use their real names and names as character; look at how believable their roles are, was there volume and articulation.
“The Design and how it established a definite mood and correct time period for the play. Lights; if they convey appropriate mood, emphasis, and brightness. Costumes and make-up; were they true to the period of the play and to the characters. Sound; how did the sound effects and music contribute to the show’s mood.
The play’s effect on the audience should be captured.
“The critic should back up all his opinions with valid reasons, indicate good points along with those he felt needed improvement,” he noted.
A total of 21 young critics were trained. After the training, the trainees were given assignment to review any play production of NUTAF of their choice presented by the participating Universities. On the second day, the reviews were read and discussed in the class.
For instance Adeoluwa Enioluwa Prince who reviewed the Lagos State University play titled, Sanity; The State of The Nation, described the play directed by Dolapo Bangle as topical because it highlights the current state of recession in the Nigerian economy.
The issues that arose in the discussion includes that he should endeavour to highlight most of the things discussed during the training in his review; such as mentioning the names of the performers when you mention the character they played, giving a focus to acting and characterization, highlighting the technical and design aspects of the production as well as capturing the reaction of the members of audience.
Several observations were made on other reviews discussed and the writers were told to effect the corrections and send back so that they can be published in the newspapers.
Obi explained that why it was necessary for them to adhere to the instructions was that one of the first rules needed from a theatre critic is that he should abide by ethics of the profession, which internationally demand that: “theatre critics should avoid anything that would bring disrespect to the profession or to himself in course of practicing the profession, hence they should maintain high standard of integrity to themselves, critical establishment and art of the theatre, they should attend the theatre to watch theatrical performance themselves and remain attentive throughout the performance; as this would help in the critical business of describing, analyzing, and evaluating the performance with concrete examples.
“The critic has to be unbiased; has to write in what is the best interests of the ideals of the art of theatre; has to motivate discussion of the work with his review; be aware of professional practices, respect artistic and intellectual freedom”
In addition to these, the facilitator counseled the trainees to cultivate the habit of exploring contacts during theatre performances and festivals, where they have to know such personnel as festival consultants, event managers, musicians, actors, dancers, directors, set designers, lighting designers, choreographers, among others, adding that with their interest and efforts soon they will meet some of the world established theatre critics like Margareta Sorenson, the global president of IATC, Prof Olu Obafemi, President National Academy of Letters, Prof. Emmanuel Dandaura, President, IATC-Nigeria and Vice President IATC International, Assoc Prof. Ivan Medenica, Assoc Prof. Ivan Medenica, the IATC Director of Conferences and Artistic Director of Belgrade International Theatre Festival (BITEF); Jahman Anikulapo, foremost Nigerian theatre critic, culture advocate and former Editor The Guardian Newspapers on Sunday, Dr. Octavian Saiu, Adjunct Secretary, IATC, Bernice Chan K Wai (Hong Kong) etc.
Nwagbo Obi, is Director, Publicity and Membership Services, IATC-Nigeria
